Laudato sii, mi Signore

On Saturday, January 11, 2025, in Assisi was the opening of the Centenary of the Canticle of Creatures. The initiative stands in continuity with the other Franciscan centenaries just celebrated (the Regola Bollata and the Greccio Crib in 2023, the imprint of the Stigmata of St. Francis in 2024), and precedes the great Centenary coming in 2026: the Transitus of St. Francis.

The celebration took place at San Damiano in the hall named for the Canticle; then it moved to the Bishop's Palace in the center of Assisi to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, shrine of the Stripping of St. Francis (entrusted to the care of us Capuchins), and then concluded in the Basilica of St. Francis. The route was meant to symbolically summarize the very composition of the Canticle of the Creatures, which, according to sources and traditions, was composed in San Damiano, but there was still more.

The celebration was an ensemble of participation of the various Franciscan components; the direction of the whole was entrusted to the local Committee for the Centenary Celebrations together with the International Committee, established by the General Ministers. The civil authorities of Assisi also took part.

The provincial minister of the OFMs, Br. Francesco Piloni, presided over the part held at the shrine of San Damiano, while provincial minister of the Capuchins, Br. Simone Calvarese, presided over the part at Santa Maria Maggiore; finally, the custos of the Sacro Convento, Br. Marco Moroni OFMConv, led the part at the Basilica of Saint Francis.

There was a consistent thread in the interweaving of texts from the Fonti Francescane, biblical texts, hymn on Creation, some prayers, songs from the Franciscan tradition, and the intervention of the General Ministers of the Franciscan Family: Br. Massimo Fusarelli, OFM; Br. Carlos Alberto Trovarelli, OFMConv, Br. Silvio do Socorro de Almeida Pereira OFMCap Vicar General; Br. Amando Trujillo Cano TOR; Mr. Tibor Kauser OFS and Sr. Frances M. Duncan President of the International Franciscan Conference of Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular (IFC-TOR), expounding on the various stanzas of the Canticle. Our Br. Silvio addressed the verses of Sister Death, saying: “The Canticle first contemplates the beauty of the cosmos, then widens to the difficult affairs of man, and finally casts its gaze on the ultimate and for us definitive reality: death. And always, after every angle contemplated, praise is the final arrival [...]. What explains this attitude of Francis, who always manages to praise? His secret is faith in a God who is the good, every good, the supreme good.”

Most Reverend Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of the Dioceses of Assisi, Nocera Umbra, Gualdo Tadino and Foligno, accompanied the entire journey and addressed participators at the Shrine of the Stripping at Santa Maria Maggiore. 

The conclusion at the Tomb of the Seraphic Father saw a floral tribute, the blessing, and the Canticle, solemnly presented by the Sacro Convento Chorale.

The Conventual brothers then welcomed all participants to their refectory. Immediately afterwards, the organizing committees, together with the General Ministers, gathered for a discussion on what had been done and to look together at the next stages of the Centenaries. The entire celebration was streamed, and can be enjoyed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/live/E_KP1PK6OXo?si=Pcc9OdcB7JA7F3Ug

Borrowing a phrase from the Fioretti, we too can conclude: To the praise and glory of Jesus Christ and the poverello Francis.